A number of devices have been devised for the purpose of heating air in a room using a source of radiation heat, e.g., a fire in a fireplace. Among such devices are fire-guards characterized by the use of a number of vertically extending, interconnectable pipes. In such fire guards, the lower portions thereof act as part of a threshhold to prevent air from bypassing the fire-guard and entering the fireplace. Previously devised fire guards were also of a kind in which pairs of adjacent pipes were hinged together so that the fire-guard pipes could be positioned to best surround the fire and therefore have maximum exposure to the fire. These fire-guards include hinges with pivoting pins placed between adjacent pipes. The pivoting action of the hinge is about the pivoting pin. However, such hinges are an expensive part of the fire-guard and are often difficult to manufacture.
The present invention is intended to reduce the cost of the fire-guard and simplify manufacture thereof. This is achieved in the present invention by a configuration in which one or more pipes are pivotable about the longitudinal axis of another pipe, rather than about a pivoting pin located between the two pipes of a pair of pipes. Also in contrast to previously designed fire-guards, the threshhold is formed in certain embodiments by using only the lower portions of pipes themselves and not pivoting pins between the pipes or other hardware, which were used in previous fire-guards to act as a barrier or threshhold to incoming air.